How a French Nobel Laureate Remembers Things Past

On Paper and Film, Annie Ernaux Probes History for Questions, Not Answers

Memory is an imperfect reflector of lived experience. We look back through a series of lenses, and our focal mechanisms shift with the light. Personal memory is shape-shifted by history—what is reported on, ruminated on, analyzed, assessed. It’s shaped by who we meet, what we see, and who we choose to see—and who chooses to see, or not see, us. Memory refracts experiences, processes and purees them.

What does the tension between memory and history—both personal and shared, the “I” and the “we”—teach us about both remembering and documenting our time …

France’s Elections Show the Need for a New Revolution

The Country’s Centralized Model Is a Danger to Democracy. Local Communities Could Fill the Void

Lire en français | Lesen Sie auf Deutsch

Might this month’s French elections be the prelude to another French Revolution?

The problems with these dismal elections are many—low turnout, moribund public …

When Music Became Therapy in Interwar France

In the Face of Uncertainty, Trauma, and Extreme Isolation, Musicians Turned to Their Art

In March of 2020 I found myself alone (except for my two cats) in a small bungalow in Bloomington, Indiana, trying and failing to distract myself from COVID-19. I was …

mural of la meres lyonnaise

The Female Cooks Who Shaped French Cuisine

A New Generation of Chefs Is Melding the Domestic and Professional—And Moving Toward Equality in the Restaurant Kitchen

As I perch on a stool in her kitchen in Lyon, I think about what makes Sonia Ezgulian’s cooking so compelling. Ezgulian, who is also a journalist, is well known …

What Nineteenth-Century Europeans Can Teach America About Peacekeeping Occupations

Rather Than Rendering a Defeated Post-Napoleonic France Dependent, Victorious Allies Sought to Create Lasting Stability

How do you win the peace?

The recent American military occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq highlight the risks of “winning the war, but losing the peace,” to borrow the subtitle …

How Traffic Circles Became Ground Zero for the French Middle Class

Garrisoned in Roundabouts, ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters Want Urban Elites to Respect Their Suburban Dream

Just over 50 years ago, Jacques Tati’s Playtime opened in French movie theaters. In the comedy, Tati once again features his iconic character, Monsieur Hulot, the confused but courtly Parisian …